CITY OF ANGELS |
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For my entire career, I have wanted to craft a timeless, classic romance; and I am deeply honored and excited to annouce I will be writing and directing a reimagining of CITY OF ANGELS for Warner Bros., Atlas Entertainment, and Perez Pictures. The producers are Charles Roven, Rebecca Steel Roven Oakely, and Paul Perez. Our CITY OF ANGELS will follow the journey of a guardian angel who falls in love with a mortal man, a lonely jazz musician in Manhattan she is tasked to guide. Read more about this beautiful project below.
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WILD BEAUTY: MUSTANG SPIRIT OF THE WEST |
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For the past five years, alongside a small passionate team, I have been working on a documentary that has ultimately changed my life. And so, over the course of the next several years, we traversed over 20,000 miles of our stunningly beautiful, wild country across the United States; filming wild horses and their families, along with the controversial government roundups where these intelligent creatures lose their freedom, their families, and all they have ever known. I was proud to work with my brother, producer Richard Avis and cinematographer Kai Krause. What began as a story that we thought would be along the lines of an independent PLANET EARTH, WILD BEAUTY ultimately became an unexpected merger between exploring the stunning cinematic beauty of wild horses, our natural wild places, and everything we need to protect for future generations; along with a hard-nosed journalistic expose of the shocking corruption happening within our federal government. We are deeply proud that our work, and this film have garnered the support and attention of major environmental groups such as The Sierra Club, Western Watersheds Project, and Members of Congress such as Steve Cohen (TN) and Dina Titus (NV). OffTheStrip has called the movie "groundbreaking".
In May 2023, Ed and I were greatly honored to receive a Special Congressional Commendation from Dina Titus on behalf of the film, and our dedication to equines welfare. WILD BEAUTY will debut in May of 2023 to the world, and has won "Best Documentary" at Boston Film Festival (2022), "Best Documentary" at St. Louis International Film Festival (2022), along with "Best Director" and "Best Cinematography" at DOC LA (2022). Please show your support by posting our trailer, and tag your Members of Congress with #istandwithwildhorses. To learn more about our work, visit www.wildbeautyfoundation.org
Ashley Avis & Edward Winters receive 2023 Congressional Commendation for WILD BEAUTY
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BLACK BEAUTY Debuts on Disney+ |
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We are extremely proud that BLACK BEAUTY debuts on Disney+ this holiday season, starring Mackenzie Foy and Oscar winner Kate Winslet. The film has graciously been reviewed by Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times as an “uplifting animal story with a beautiful message”, and a “sweeping epic”. Read more below: As a lifelong equestrian, it was a profound honor and deep responsibility for me to reimagine the timeless themes of Anna Sewell for audiences of today. When I originally began doing my research, I discovered that her decision to write Black Beauty in the late 1800s was not necessarily to pen a children’s book; but rather, to craft an animal welfare plea for the horses of her time. The cab horses, the carriage horses. In discovering this, I began researching modern issues horses are facing in our time today, and came across the desperate plight of wild horses. Few people know they are being rounded up in the American West, separated from their homes, and their families. And so, in this version of Black Beauty, I sincerely hope to honor Anna’s original intentions, along with doing good by our world, and inspiring important messages of empathy and compassion, for horses and humans today. I hope you enjoy the film. It is now streaming exclusively on Disney+!
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"The Wild Beauty Foundation" |
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Over the past several years, as I have been working on BLACK BEAUTY, and discovering more about the beauty and plight of wild horses across the American West; my husband Edward Winters and I have launched our own nonprofit, The Wild Beauty Foundation. We have rescued over 30 wild and domestic horses to date, finding them forever homes, while also creating awareness programs for children. It’s time to protect our wild world for generations to come. Check out the work we are doing below!
One of the horses we adopted, a very special horse called Ghost, had advanced melanoma. And so, during the time of Covid, we created a program called "A Day With A Horse", and virtually introduced sweet Ghost to young patients of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Mackenzie Foy joined me at Happy Horse Ranch in California to bring joy to the kids. Check out the video below!
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WILD BEAUTY: Mustang Spirit of the West |
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Last year, we began filming a new project in the wilds of Utah, Nevada, and Wyoming... driving out to some faraway places searching for wild horses. This documentary initially began as a much simpler envisioned trip to capture real, authentic footage of wild horses that we could infuse into our narrative feature Black Beauty, to root Beauty in the American West given we were filming most of the movie in South Africa (which doubles extremely well for much of the United States). There has been such extraordinary serendipity with these projects, and instead of just capturing a few days of b-roll, we ended up having the opportunity to film two weeks of spectacular footage - both the ghostly beauty of these wild ones free with their families at sunrise and sunset, as well as witnessing the tragedy of several cruel helicopter roundups. Concurrently, as I became more versed about the issues wild horses are facing in our country, I realized we could craft something much bigger, a documentary that could be released after Black Beauty for those who wish to learn more about the cause. We are at the very beginning, and have so much more to capture - but I look forward to debuting Wild Beauty: Mustang Spirit of the West in 2021. On top of the film, I have also rescued two wild horses from one of the roundups we filmed - a cobalt mare, and her young paint colt. They are called "Zephyra" (named for "goddess of the West wind") and Zion" (her "sun"). Both "Z&Z" are now starting the gentling process with trainer Jeremy Dunn in Tehachapi, CA. It is my great wish they can be beacons of hope for the wild horses of today. Take a look at the teaser, below!
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"BREYER HOLLOW" |
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Growing up, I loved a few things most of all: ravenously reading books (usually high up in some tree), riding horses, and writing stories. And so, when I was brought on to create a new family television series for Imagine Entertainment’s Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, and Stephanie Sperber based on the iconic Breyer brand - I went back to my childhood to come up with a magical new world of both horse and animal characters. Looking forward to announcements coming soon about this beautiful series. For now, check out the links below. https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/breyer-horse-toy-imagine-tv-series-1203262655/ https://imagine-entertainment.com/kids-family/breyer-2/
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"JAGUAR" |
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I was fortunate to be contacted by Jaguar USA to be part of their new campaign featuring real owners, just a few weeks before I departed for production in South Africa. We headed up to a wild horse sanctuary called Return to Freedom in San Luis Obispo, where I spoke about our upcoming film Black Beauty and got to drive up some spectacular winding roads. The wild horses had all congregated on top of a mountain with a narrow dirt path... so what else, of course, was there to do but go off-roading? In truth, I've never driven so boldly! But the feeling of getting up there at sunset... standing amongst a herd of a dozen galloping mustangs with a drone soaring overhead... both imagining what that shot must look as well as being swept up in the moment of such unparalleled grace and power... it was a special experience, indeed. Check out the video below, as well as the article on Jaguar's website. https://www.jaguarusa.com/owners/faces-of-jaguar/ashley-avis.html
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"BEING AND NOTHINGNESS" | |
I have always wanted to film something in Casper, Wyoming. Growing up, I had heard stories of my "Aunt Patty", a woman who lived out on a 400-acre ranch with a menagerie of animals. She had ridden horses in Madison Square Garden, turned down an engagement with Henry Ford III, and had run off with a cowboy in her twenties. Patty apparently had dozens of horses, cows, llamas, and whatever else you could think of. I finally met her when I was nine or ten, and spent several summers in Casper on her ranch. Having grown up in a small city, spending summers in Wyoming was a big change; there was less technology (and this was before the advent of everything 'i' related now), more book reading, and the majority of my days were spent galloping through the meadows or quietly stargazing. Every time I visit Patty, in the evenings I always find myself wobbling around outside because my eyes are tilted directly toward that big star-blasted sky.
I've written of Patty in a few of my projects over the years, but this January I finally got the opportunity to go up to Casper to film something. I wrote an experimental project, about twenty fives page long, about a young woman called LOLA (Sascha Nastasi) who is forced to relocate from a big city to Casper with her anxiety riddled, Jean-Paul obsessed existentialist divorcée mother HOLLY (Betsy Brandt). Soon Lola meets her grandmother IVY (Cloris Leachman), a ranch woman who has long been estranged from Holly.
Lola instantly adores her idiosyncratic grandmother, and quickly falls in both love and lust with Ivy's ranch hand and surrogate son CODY (Connor Weil). Unfortunately, Ivy dies the very next morning, and Lola is committed to the "nothingness". "At least I have him," she quotes, gazing longingly at Cody who is warming a newborn lamb in his jacket. Lola later plots to rid Cody of his simpleton girlfriend ALLY (Sloane Avery), for his good as well as her own.
This project was a joy to do for a number of reasons. It isn't often we get the opportunity to do something for the sheer sake of creativity, and while still on a tight budget, be able to get on a plane and actually go to a place like Casper (versus "ah, we can kind of double it somewhere in Los Angeles... but no, we really can't"). There were a number of fascinating and challenging technical problems to solve on this, too. Cloris and Betsy had to shoot in Los Angeles. The film was set in Wyoming (in the winter, nonetheless!). So we found a house in Santa Clarita that sat on a ranch, and shot all of our interiors in that house, as well as all the coverage facing the porch directly, so Ivy could walk out and greet her guests. We then shot the reverses and the rest of the coverage in Casper.
Now, Santa Clarita was 80 degrees and sunny -- Casper was below ten with wind chill, and was in the process of having significant snowstorms. We brought in a snowteam (well, a 'snow guy' -- pulled a lot of favors on that one, and we could only afford to cover part of the front lawn!), got creative with our coverage, and extremely specific with our shot list. In Wyoming, we were fortunate to have an incredible amount of support by a few people my Aunt Patty introduced us to, especially our guide Jade and the brothers at Murphy Ranch, where we shot all of our ranch exteriors and animals. I very nearly took home a little newborn lamb myself.
Wyoming in the winter was striking. We were fortunate to encounter only a few storms (a few scary mornings driving in a caravan out to places like Independence Rock with limited visibility), but magically when we needed to roll camera... it was as if the weather sighed, and stilled for us. We had spectacular morning sunrises and stunning molten sunsets -- the landscape was frigid but magical. Our cast and crew were the ultimate troopers, getting through these scenes on the top of mountains while controlling their chattering teeth, we dragged the Alexa (carefully) up a rock face. We had a drone for our Wyoming days which proved very much worth the cost and one of us sitting with it fully assembled in the front seat at all times.
Sixteen-year-old newcomer Sascha Nastasi played the lead of Lola, and did an unbelievable job, standing with giants like Cloris and Betsy. It was quite an emotional experience, for me, to work with a legend like Cloris Leachman who is now ninety two years old and still acting. Sascha, Betsy, Connor and Sloane had such wonderful chemistry -- and Hugo Martin, an actor I've worked with for some time, lent his humor as the voice of "Paul Jean's Soothing Sartre".
I worked with cinematographer Kai Krause to set the look, tone, and intentionality of movement for the film, and we ended up deciding on the Alexa Mini paired with Cooke Anamorphic lenses (we really wanted that anamorphic look, given our sprawling landscapes). They were light enough to move around quickly, especially in Casper, and lent just the right amount of tempered sharpness while retaining texture. Colorist Paul Byrne positively painted this film in the grade, bringing out our cold blues of dusk, the purples of sunrise, and honing in on our interiors and use of practical lighting with the shaping of shadows. Michael Clausen did the production design inside the Santa Clarita house, and my husband Edward Winters and brother Richard Avis produced the film (Richard literally drove our camera package to and from Los Angeles to Casper).
The last and most interesting part of this journey was editing it. I have been editing for about ten years now; I cut almost all of the commercial work I direct, I've edited portions of my features and other people's films; but I have never attempted to tackle my own narrative film project solo. BEING AND NOTHINGESS ended up being 30 minutes long, and it was very much a matter of cutting a very short movie. On top of that, I was cutting between Los Angeles and Casper, we had a number of other challenges, and I was pretty sure this experience was going to point to either loving to edit narrative work, or being sure I didn't want to embark on doing so in the future!
I loved it. I loved every minute of it. Finding every moment, scrubbing through that footage, knowing exactly what we got on set, each beat, each breath. I couldn't be more grateful to having had to learn how to edit ten years ago for time / budget / margins / creativity and overall being curious to learn. I don't know how I would direct today without the ability to stitch scenes and coverage together in my head on the day while filming. BEING AND NOTHINGNESS was a joy, and upon screening it for the first time for my ineffable Aunt Patty, she enjoyed it. "I see a lot of me in there," she said, laughing. This one is for you, Patty.
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"ADOLESCENCE" ACQUIRED BY NORTH OF TWO |
Our independent, coming of age story ADOLESCENCE has been acquired for worldwide distribution via North of Two. Very excited to embark on this partnership with such a filmmaker friendly company. The movie will come out in the fall, and stars India Eisley, Tommy Flanagan, Elisabeth Rohm and Jere Burns. Feel free to follow the film here. Variety
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"BESPOKE" TAKES HOME MERCEDES-BENZ AWARD IN CAPE TOWN! |
Our third journey down to one of my favorite cities in the world, Cape Town, was especially rewarding this year. Ed and I attended the Mercedes-Benz sponsored Bokeh South African Film Festival with a project I directed called "BESPOKE". The spot was a branded beauty piece, a fusion between an automotive spot and a fashion film.
The idea for Bespoke, like much of my work, started with a love story. The goal was to feel rooted in the contemporary, the modern - but distinctly reminiscent of an older time. Elegance, old Hollywood. A starlet who has everything but love, and finds it on a chance meeting with a gentleman who whisks her away from a movie premiere (in his Mercedes-Benz, of course), ending in a rooftop kiss.
A big thank you to Mercedes-Benz and Adrian Lazarus of Bokeh for putting on such an elegant event again this year. Now, check out the spot! |
ADOLESCENCE (feature film): A few teasers, director's notes
We're currently in post on ADOLESCENCE, a coming of age feature I directed this past March. I was fortunate to work with many of the same people from DESERTED - including my husband and producing partner Edward Winters, my aspiring producer brother Richard Avis, Director of Photography Garrett O'Brien, and editor Douglas Crise (the brilliant mind behind movies like Birdman, Babel, and Spring Breakers). I wanted to post a few teasers ... a few of these are screengrabs from the editing room, and a few are behind the scenes set photos by Marcelo Araujo.
We were very specific on the outset about the texture and feel of this film. I worked with Garrett (and our production designer Michael Clausen) for months discussing our color palette and tone. The movie undergoes a "color roller-coaster" of sorts ... I wanted to define certain colors for certain characters (you'll notice in the film, there is rarely any blue seen unless Alice is in frame - to me, her colors were of the ocean, blues, her bedroom is painted a color called "Hemlock", a green blue).
Now, we haven't done anything but grade the proxies yet as we're not into color (Paul Byrne will be grading the movie), but the film starts with nostalgic tones of the main character, Adam's, flashback. They are brighter, more hopeful. Flashing forward ten years, we reveal Adam's (Mickey River) home life. We focused on muted colors, a feeling of being "stuck" (paralleling how he feels about his life). Then, as he and his best friend Keith (Romeo Miller) visit Venice beach and meet Alice (India Eilsey), we see an explosion of color. Richness, excitement. We introduce those blues, those Alice colors.
We also executed these feelings in movement. In Adam's world of Torrence, at home, we primary stayed on sticks for most of the movie - again, in keeping with a feeling of stillness and stuckness. With Alice, however, we have sweeping steadicam or jib moves, we have handheld, dolly push ins.
As the relationship begins to disintegrate we see the colors of our world start to change, to sicker colors (introducing greens and yellows). Our team - and again, I have to specifically note our DP Garrett and Production Designer Michael in this - was extremely collaborative in executing those tones and the vision of that progression.
Lastly, the goal was to have the film have a texture to it. I didn't want to see a lot of technology (i.e. cell phones) in the film, I wanted to use older cars (Jennette's car is an old, faded yellow Mercedes station wagon, Alice's car is a blue, slightly beat up old Mustang convertible). I almost gave my producer (luckily husband) a heart attack when I toyed with the idea of wanting to make ADOLESCENCE a period piece set in the 80s, but that was fleeting and it is very much set in the contemporary. However, we feel a nostalgia, we feel the texture of a different time. Well, hopefully the audience will! We shot Panavision, ALEXA for C-Series Anamorphic lenses that were soft, filmic, and textural. Look for the film in 2017! |
DESERTED (feature film): Behind the Scenes Updates, 2016 |
A few beautiful behind the scenes photos by set photographer Marcelo Araujo. DESERTED is set to be released in September of 2016 by Invincible Pictures. We'll have a limited theatrical release (stay tuned for updates), as well as be on VOD / On Demand. A few notes on the movie: we shot DESERTED primarily in Ridgecrest, California. The original inspiration of the film came when a cinematographer I was working with at the time on a commercial campaign, showed me photos of Death Valley. The sweeping vistas, the sand dunes, the salt flats. The mysterious sailing stones of Racetrack Playa. The topography was so varied, it was a fascinating place to set a film. From there, the characters crawled out of the woodwork. The relationship of Jae (Mischa Barton) and Robin (Jackson Davis) was inspired by my relationship with my younger brother. What you would do for others - for friends, for family - if you were in a situation like this. Like so many have been before, getting lost in Death Valley. Ridgecrest provided very similar shooting locations to Death Valley (which was difficult and costly to permit). I worked with DP Garrett O'Brien to bring the film to life, costume designer Kate Fry, Production Designer Michelle Patterson, and my producing partner Edward Winters. You know you have a loyal crew when they are willing to race to the top of a mountain with you to capture a molten sunset, or drive straight through a real sandstorm careening over a mountain.
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MERCEDES-BENZ: A Beautiful Life |
Last year, we did another spot for the Mercedes-Benz Bokeh South African Fashion Film Festival. Like BESPOKE (above) this was a fusion between automotive and branded beauty. Shooting in the poppy fields of Lancaster, the story follows a photographer who happens across a striking woman in white, the unfolding of a love story, and returning to the place where it all happened. I worked with Director of Photography Corey C. Waters on bringing this spot to life. Corey also colored the spot, and I edited it ... the fact that our leads, Kelly Brannigan and Jackson Davis were a real couple made for the most wonderful, but difficult editing process. I still get teary eyed watching this spot (which you'll find after the photos by Marcelo Araujo, below).
One of my favorite spots to date. Please enjoy!
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